This posting is based on a talk I gave to the
Ethical Society at Conway
Hall in Holborn on
Sunday 19 October. Its purpose was to stimulate debate
What is Racism?
‘The race problem means … the problem of adjustment between two
dissimilar populations, locally intermingled in such proportions that the one
feels its racial identity potentially threatened, while the other knows itself
in constant danger of economic exploitation.’ (William Archer. Through Afro-America. 1910)
If we replace ‘the race’ by ‘the East European and the Moslem
immigration’ does this succinctly summarise the attraction of UKIP?
If it does then does this represent a growing toxic growing mix of
racism, xenophobia and confusion?
Racism implies racial
discrimination, racial supremism and a
harmful intent.
The word ‘racism’ is only about 80 years old. It came into use in the 1930s in the context of discussion about Nazi theories about Jews and Slavs, i.e. white peoples.
It replaced earlier words, racialism (1871) and racialist (early 20thC), while
those from the 19thC like race hatred, race and colour prejudice remain
in use today.
So when we use the word ‘racism’ to talk about attitudes prior to 1930 should
we do so in inverted commas as a reminder that it is a relatively modern word?
But the roots of ‘racism’ have a long history.
Supporters of the slave trade and slavery justified their activity on the basis
that Africans were uncivilised. Analysis by some British scientists of the differences between ‘races’ in the
mid-19thC laid the foundations for seeing those who were not ‘True Englishmen’
or ‘Europeans’ as inferior, as savages and
uncivilised. This is what Sir Francis Galton,
wrote in a letter to The Times on June 5, 1873:
‘My proposal is to make the encouragement
of Chinese settlements
of Africa a part of our national policy, in the belief that the Chinese
immigrants would not only maintain their position, but that they would multiply
and their descendants supplant the inferior Negro race ... I should expect
that the African seaboard, now sparsely occupied by lazy, palavering savages,
might in a few years be tenanted by industrious, order-loving Chinese, living
either as a semidetached dependency of China, or else in perfect freedom under
their own law.’
Such views interacted with the development of
colonial and imperialist policies and practice across the British Empire. In
his book Science, race relations and
resistance. Britain 1870-1914 Douglas Lorimer summarises the definitions of
‘civilised’ and uncivilised’ conditions as developed through British
imperialist experience as:
‘Civilised’: including ‘private ownership of
property, the adoption of the English language and the Christian religion, the
adoption of western practices in regard to marriage and family life, and cash
income as educated professionalism, as independent or tenant farmers, as
traders or shopkeepers, or as wage –labourers.’
‘Uncivilised’: including communal ownership of
land, retention of an indigenous language, heathen religious and cultural
practices in contravention of Christian norms, non-western forms of governance
and law usually described as ‘tribal’, or ‘traditional’, and non-capitalist
forms of production and labour.’
By the beginning of the 20thC the problems
relating to the relationship between whites and non-whites were discussed in
categories such as the ‘Native Question’, ‘Colour Problem’. ‘Race Problem’ and
in the United States the ‘Negro Question’.
By the time of the start of the Boer War in 1899
‘racism’ had become deeply ingrained. Even the Dutch Boers were seen as a
separate race from Britons. By the end of the War The Daily Telegraph could write in August 1902:
‘The potential equality of the typical African
with the white people, as we now know, never has existed and never can exist.
No black race is capable of assimilating the higher spirit of mastering the
political and economic mechanism of modern civilization.’ (p. 45)
In the aftermath of the War the concept of the
‘Black Peril’ developed in South Africa over black men raping white women, even
though the majority of women there who were raped were black by white men. This
broadened out in some people’s minds to the dangers of black men in Britain. In
May 1906 the People’s Journal of
Dundee ran a special report ‘’A “NEGRO” INVASION – Britain’s New Racial Problem
- White Women and Blacks.’ (p.48)
Even someone like Annie Besant, a supporter of Indian nationalism
deploring differentiation between skin colour and prejudice subscribed to the
concept of the ‘Black Peril’. (p. 225) The Black Peril was picked up again
after the War by E. D. Morel about the use of African troops by France to
police the German Ruhr, despite the fact that he had been prominent in the earlier
campaign about the atrocities in the Belgian Congo.
Racism Today
Look How Far
We’ve Come…?
is a film recording the reflections of black and white activists on how far
Britain has come since the 1950s in dealing with racism. I attended two
showings in Westminster earlier this year and then organised its showing as
part of the Croydon Heritage Festival. It
is clear from discussions on the film that many people still consider that
racism is still a problem, that the issue of race has been taken off and needs
to be put back on the agenda.
Bishop
Dr. Joe Aldred, commenting at one of the showings said: “Racism is an embedded
reality in Western society. We cannot afford to deny its stubborn presence
rooted in powerful vested interests. To combat it, those affected by racism
must seek ways to become strong spiritually, culturally, economically and
politically - carving out and perusing a self-determined destiny.”
These
concerns that racism is still a problem is backed by research.
·
30% of people in Britain
admit they are racist, up 5% since 2000. (British Social Attitudes Survey)
·
People with names
associated with ethnic minority groups were 29% less likely to be called for an
interview than someone with a ‘White British’ name. (Department for Work and
Pensions 2009)
·
In July 2012, 29% of
Asian and 47% of black young people were unemployed in the UK compared to 20%
of white.
·
Institutional racism
continues in the police (e.g. the Stephen Lawrence and Groce families
experience; the disproportionate use of stop and search).
Some Joseph Rowntree
Foundation findings (2014):
·
Prejudice is compounding
poverty.
·
Racism, and the fear of
it, restricts access to social networks, preventing people from making links
which could lead to jobs, support for small businesses, training and other
opportunities.
·
It can prevent people
from being promoted at work, wasting their skills and potential.
·
It can lead to people
from ethnic minority backgrounds being directed into work for which they are
greatly overqualified.
·
It intimidates people
from leaving their own area to look for work or access services.
·
Children’s education is
affected by low expectations among teachers and by racist bullying.
·
Access to vital services,
such as primary healthcare, is affected by experiences of racism, particularly
from frontline staff such as receptionists.
At least two-thirds of people
classified as black and ethnic minority in Britain live in those areas labelled
’socially deprived’ – i.e where those at
the bottom end of the working class and the poor predominantly live.
But you may say Britain is a multi-cultural society in which racism is
reducing. Are we actually not a collection of national, ethnic and faith silos,
with high levels of distrust and intolerance towards each other?
Governments find it easier and easier to divide and rule by attacking
different social groups: lone parents, the unemployed, those on benefits, the
baby boomers, addicts, the obese, the socially deprived. They are eroding
people’s understanding and ability to express
solidarity. Those under attack either lay back and take the punishment
or lash out and get into trouble.
Legacies
What is meant by legacies of slavery
and Empire?
·
The
shaping of Britain in the 18th and 19thCs based on the profits of
the slavery business and colonial exploitation.
·
The
divisions created by colonialism in the Caribbean, West Africa and South
Africa.
·
The
post-emancipation of under-development of the Caribbean.
·
The
race divide in the United States.
·
The
continuing mistreatment and stereotyping of Haitians, who pioneered the
overthrow of slavery and have been paying for it ever since.
And of course the large scale
migration to Britain from the West Indies, the Indian Sub-continent and Africa.
The
Windrush ship from the West Indies in 1948 symbolises both the defeat of Nazi
racism as it was a former ship for Hitler Youth holidaying on the Baltic, and the
beginning of the large Afro-Caribbean migration after the War by people who
answered the Mother Country’s call for help in reconstruction, with that extra
spur of the under-development of the British West Indies that stretched back to
the end of slavery.
While
Black people in Britain since the end of the Second World War have experienced
racism, as shown in Donald Hines’s novel Mother
Country launched a few days ago. While that experience was nothing compared
with that of African Americans, activists took inspiration from the US civil
rights movement.
Since
the 1950s the racism of Mosley, Colin Jordan, Enoch Powell, the National Front,
and the British National Party has been countered by black organisations and by
anti-racists through campaigns such as the Campaign Against Racial
Discrimination, the Anti-Nazi League, Rock Against Racism, Kick Racism Out of
Football. But while the racists fall out with each other as we have seen with
the expulsion of Nick Griffin by the BNP, they are constantly reorganising,
which is why the monitoring work of the magazine Searchlight is so important.
The
film 12 Years A Slave woke up many in
Britain to the horrors of slavery. While it is a first class film, we need to
remember it is not about a man born into slavery and it took place in the US
Southern States cotton belt that fed the Lancashire cotton mills, a key
component of 19thC British economy. Britain underpinned the slavery
system in the American Southern States, and British money was embedded into the
financial and transport infrastructure which supported it. It was England that
introduced slavery into the British West Indies and the American colonies which
became the United States.
The
Legacies of British Slave-ownership project at UCL has been looking into who benefited
from the £20m compensation given to the slave owners and what they spent the
money on. All around us in Britain are building and cultural legacies of that
money and the profits that were made in 18thC. The project team is now tracking
back to the 1760s.
British Black
History
The modern African presence in Britain began in
early Tudor times. Research identifies
more and more individuals as visiting, working, marrying and raising families,
and dieing here. Those who are becoming better known up are people like John
Blanke, Henry VII and VIII’s trumpeter, Olaudah Equiano the late 18thC black
abolitionist and supporter of political reform, William Cuffay the London
Chartist leader, Mary Seacole because of her role in the Crimean War,
Arthur Wharton, the footballer and sportsmen, Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor the composer, John Archer the Mayor of Battersea in 1913/14, Walter
Tull the footballer and officer in the First World and C. L. R. James, the
writer and activist. While they did experience racism, they also experienced
popularity and solidarity. Archer was elected by whites, as were two Indian MPs
in the late Victorian and Edwardian period and Saklavata in Battersea in the
1920s.
Coleridge-Taylor was perhaps the most famous and
popular composer, conductor and adjudicator in Britain who tragically died aged
37. The life stories of more and more individuals are being told, like Esther
Bruce and Bill Miller. Two individuals particularly
stand out in the period of the 1880s to the early 1920s. Samuel Celestine
Edwards, a priest and editor of the an ‘anti-racist’ journal Fraternity, and Duse Mohamed Ali editor of
The African and Orient Review.
Anti-Racism
There is a rich history of
anti-racism, of solidarity, of opposition to the treatment of Africans and
others in their countries starting in the campaign
for the abolition of Britain’s official involvement in the slave trade achieved
in 1807, and then in the campaign to end slavery in the British colonies
achieved over a five year period following the emancipation act in 1833.
Religious, ethical
and humanitarian considerations and concepts of liberty and civil rights helped
underpin the abolition cause. These
remained part of the anti-slavery and native rights campaigns after emancipation
in the 1830s.
Once Britain had extricated itself from direct
involvement in slavery in 1838, the debate over abolition of slavery in the
United States, Brazil, Cuba and parts of Africa and the Middle East continually
referred to the problem of ‘colour prejudice’, and race oppression. The Britain government, merchants,
bankers and industrialists entered a period of what are clear contradictions,
on the one hand intervening to force other countries to end their slave trades,
and on the other hand ‘civilising’ Africans and other savage native peoples
through colonisation, and supporting slave economies in the United States,
Brazil and Cuba through free trade and investment. It was inevitable that
British colonists and administrators were riddled with those racist attitudes
as they sought to rule on the ground.
The abolitionists themselves had their own
contradictions. Yet they saw the British concepts of freedom and equality as
justifying colonisation. They resolved the contradiction by campaigning for the
rule of law in the colonies, and the establishment of rights for the colonised.
It was an uphill unwinnable struggle. By the end of the Boer War in 1902 it
seemed an even greater problem with the strengthening of the ideas of separate
development especially in South Africa.
The increasing colonisation of Africa and suppression of those who
fought back helped to highlight the abuses of the rights of those who were
oppressed. The Colenso family in particular were vigorous campaigners for the
rights of the Zulus and opposed to the rape of East Africa by Cecil Rhodes. An
increasing number of individuals began to express concerns, like Charlotte
Impey, who founded the journal Ante-Caste
in the 1880s and the Society for
the Recognition of the Brotherhood of Man (SRBM) in the 1890s to oppose racial
discrimination, whose journal Fraternity
Celestine Edwards edited. Examples of
such solidarity have continued down to the present day.
Some
questions
1. Does
knowing about the history of Black and anti-racist Britain change individuals’
understanding of British history and why we have the multi-ethnic society we
now do?
2. How
was it possible to build effective anti-racist organisation and campaigning
involving large numbers of white Britons in the 1970s and 80s?
3. Can
effective anti-racist organisation be built in today’s climate dominated by
UKIP?
